Strings Wrapped Around A Bone

An End to a New Begining

22:27:23

Looking ahead, she sees a cloaked figure with large horns sticking out. She knew she had made it.
“MOCHI-KUNNN!” Running with her hands up high and blinded by euphoria she ran into his skeletal ribcage, getting her head stuck between his ribs and red orb thingy. “AHHHHH!!!” Both yelled in unison, the game tried to calculate the damage output by this action only to output that it was an error and took only a few minutes before the game fixed itself and respawned her beside him.

The awkward silence was shared between the two. Then Shiori heard a sniffing of tears. “B-Bijou-san?!” Although he had a scary-looking avatar his voice certainly doesn't match, “You really came. (つ｡ω｡つ)” Her heart warmed up at his words, but the nagging feeling was there. “Momonga… did they come?” She pushes back her avatar’s cubicles somberly. “HeroHero-san did but he said he was tired from overtime so… he left a few minutes ago.”

“I see…” She looks over to Sebes, did Touch Me forget about him like the rest did to theirs? She’ll definitely never forget about Ningyo or Suzu. Even if they weren't Custom NPCs she was still able to customize them a little using simple personality adjectives. Having received them as a skill tree bonus, when she reached level 10.

“So we're moving the Pleiades to the Throne Room? Ah, I suppose they're sending us off, one final time. Right, Mochi-kun?”

“I must apologise for not having a vote before moving them.” His voice is obviously filled with guilt and shame, yet he pushes on with his decision.

The room they entered was the “Lemengeton”, the walls were built in areas in them to house statues, or more accurately golems. The atmosphere is quite intimidating for even the guild members as no one knows if or when the two statues, a beautiful goddess and a cruel demon, situated on the left and right side respectively, would attack them.

While Shiori was busy taking in the view, Momonga opened the giant doors in front of her. Behind the giant doors is the throne room. Close to the ceiling on the supporting beams, magnificent flags are displayed. Flags representing each member are still pristine, even with the long passage of time that has passed, this is finally it.

“Standby,” She heard Momonga order the NPCs beside her. Then her eyes flowed to the white she-devil. Tabula created her along with two others. If she remembered correctly, her name was Albedo. Shiori stood awed at her beauty but feared that if she were to read her flavor text she wouldn’t like how the NPC really was. But curiosity had already killed the cat. “Hey, Mochi-kun, come check her settings with me, I wanna know what Tabula wrote for this one,” Momonga shared her interest, opening her character profile and scrolling through the Wall of China that was her flavor text, he eyes landing on the last sentence, ‘Incidentally, she’s a slut.’ “HEH!?” Shiori let out a sharp shriek as she made a dramatic shocked pose while Momonga grasped, his arms stiff as a branch. Shiori, now, was frantically tapping on his shoulder. “Hey! I know he likes gap moes but isn’t this too much?” She was silent for a while.
“Can you, uh, I don’t know… Change her settings?”

“I don’t want to change Talula-san’s work but I do agree that it is quite extreme...” Momonga added after a thought. “Then let me do it! I know just what to change it to.” Shiori jumped giggly. Momonga contemplated for a moment, “It’s alright, I trust you.” Receiving an administrator's access for a bit Shiori nimbly typed out, ‘Incidentally, she is a virgin even despite being a succubus. Saving it for a certain someone who she deems the most worthy. She will never let go of that person until her last breath.’
Clicking her tongue, Shiori looked happy at her edit. Thinking to herself, ‘I hope you’ll be okay with my additional change Tabula-san.’

Turning her head to Momonga, she questions, “What do you think?” She brushes non-existent dust off her shoulders.

Momonga huffs a heavy sigh that can be heard across the room. He disables the administration access and turns around to walk away, but is stopped by Shiori stepping on the next set of stairs to increase her height. She pokes her index fingers in Momonga’s eye sockets, the red dots dimming them in the process, and she deadpans, “You should be a supportive uncle than an unhappy one. Besides, I want her to decide on her own.”

Another deep sad sigh exclaimed and her friend replied, “Even so, the server's ending anyway, she wouldn't have time to choose anyway.” Momonga pulls his head back dislodging Shiori’s jabs, opting to go sit on his throne.

Skipping steps, Shiori lands in front of Momonga, “Don't be like that! We can still go play other games. Maybe even recreating all the NPCs, I have all their settings archives in my account,” Pausing for a moment to gather her words she added, “Hell, if you're lonely enough come live with me, my brother's room is still clean, and he wouldn't mind. So even if I’m dead tired from work we can still chat while I slowly pass out.” She ends with a wink with finger guns pointing at Momonga, while her avatar was happy, Shiori wasn't quite so happy inside.
23:46:56

Her hands dropped to her side, swaying lifelessly, “I… I will confess, after all these years,” Momonga looked up at her. Did he expect something? “I come to see you as a brother. You already know his story, so thank you so much for helping me realize his dream.” Shiori clasped her own hand to comfort herself so as not to cry in front of him. Even after two decades, she could not stop mourning, the insurance she worked tooth and nail to pay for didn't even take a glance at her brother's case, leaving him to wait for his agonizing death in that hospital. The doctors didn't even bother to tell her what the thing was that was causing him pain till the very end.

“Bijou-san, there has been something I have been meaning to give you,” Momonga’s voice started her out of her trance, she turned to see that he was now staring at her, “It’s a… Ring of Ainz Ooal Gown,” He rubs his neck awkwardly, “I should have given this to you a long time ago but it never felt right when I imagined you wearing it. So I added some enchants and customization,” It looks like the normal ring but it had less sharp edges replaced with swan wings at each corner flowing down. As for the casing, instead of gold, it was ocean blue jade. Perhaps it was her conversation with him about the detailed effects of stones in Yggdrasil and how accurate they were to their real-life counterparts, that then the conversation shifted to her old pair of wedding rings she had brought for her ex-fiance who she thought she would spend the rest of her life with, however that was before he stole it to pawn off somewhere.
Shiori after finishing her path down memory lane remembers a precious item of hers. Looping the ring to her side bangs them hanging them against her hair, it shines brightly with the in-game graphics.
The gift received, a fire stirs in her heart. For her dearest friend, she wants to return the gesture.

23:58:38

“Momonga-san,” The man whose name it belonged to still patiently listened, “I know it isn't as valuable as the items our friends grinded for but it’s pretty, so I would like to give it to you. Even if it would be useless now,” What Shiori handed him was a crystalline, star-shaped pendulum. A rare gacha reward for boasting exp gain. Since she couldn’t play as much,  it didn't exactly serve much purpose to her as an item. Yet it still brought her joy regardless, as it is, in her eyes, extremely stunning and quite delightful to look at. “Thank you, Bijou-san,” he reaches out his hand, and Shiori places it on his hand and closes her smaller hands on his, covering the pendulum.

Momonga accepts it.

23:59:59

Shiori closes her eyes.

00:00:00

Yaggasil ended.